Dear Constant Reader,
Happy Friday! Here’s your tip!
Warm up before you stretch.
Stretching is not the same thing as warming up, although I’ve heard people use the terms as though they were synonymous. You want your muscles and joints to be nice and warm before you start stretching, to avoid injury. The warm up doesn’t have to be a major production, just 5-10 minutes of movement through all your body parts to get them warm and loose before you start stretching. Personally, I love the warm up on Kristina Nekyia’s Get Bent! and do it all the time.
You want to do things in this order to get the maximum benefit: warm up, stretch, work out/rehearse/perform/&c., stretch more and cool down. And if you’re working out: do cardio first and then strength training.
Like this tip? There are lots more in Miss Mina Murray’s Little Book of Better Burlesque.
